Shadow's Endings

[Badnik Zero]

My favorite endings are the two Cosmic Fall ones, and the Android Empire ending. I agree that the ARK ending is best, since it's a kind of noble purpose for Shadow, but he still holds on to that little bit of "MARRRIAGH!" that made up so much of his character. The Vector ending is a little funny to me, because it ends on such a down. There's no absolute declarations being shouted, he just kind of hangs his head and walks away. Even Vector is like, where are you going? I think Shadow would more likely vow some kind of revenge or get violent, but I guess he wasn't in the mood in this particular story branch. And is this the only time we see Shadow sad and defeated, instead of just confused and brooding? The real reason for me liking these endings is my love for Cosmic Fall and all the levels going up to it, so I get these two on regular playthroughs pretty often. If I take the neutral path however, I make sure to kill Robotnik. Nothing is funnier in this game to me than Eggman's "NOOOOOH!" and Shadow's completely misguided aspirations to be some kind of robot overlord. Also, shouldn't Omega know he's the original? Hilarious. I've always thought the Vector ending was the most likely canon ending, since it ends without much climax, setting up the final story instead.

Edited December 19, 2009 by Cupcake Hedgehog

[Frozen Nitrogen]

Despite it being mah favourite, it's actually incredibly rare that I get the LESS MOSTLY DARK ending as I loathe Cosmic Fall with a passion. That rotating platfrom section is harder than all of Eggmanland put together as far as I'm concerned.

I usually end up with one of the PURE DARK ends, 'cos I love Gun Fortress. Yeah, miniguns!

I use to think same thing until I remembered the current G.U.N. Commander is a survivor of the ark tragedy. He claims that everyone he knew and loved died 50 years ago including Maria. If the GUN commander didn't climb the ranks and change GUN himself, you could at least consider that the GUN of today is not the same as GUN 50 years. If GUN is different and Shadow has put his past behind him then I see no problem with him working as a agent of GUN.

"GUN today =/= GUN 50 years ago" is the usual defence of Shadow's secret-agency I see, but I just don't buy it. It's certainly too subtle a distinction for RAAAAARGH WRATH Shadow to make. Forgiving GUN as an organization is like (almost exactly like, in fact) letting a murderer get off scot free because they say "Well, I did it a long time ago and I'm a changed man now, honest". Even if it's true, you'd still throw their ass in jail instead of becoming their assistant and helping them achieve their goals.

I don't care how much Shadow's discarded his past; becoming a GUN agent is like pissing on Maria and Gerald's graves.

[Octarine]

"GUN today =/= GUN 50 years ago" is the usual defence of Shadow's secret-agency I see, but I just don't buy it. It's certainly too subtle a distinction for RAAAAARGH WRATH Shadow to make. Forgiving GUN as an organization is like (almost exactly like, in fact) letting a murderer get off scot free because they say "Well, I did it a long time ago and I'm a changed man now, honest". Even if it's true, you'd still throw their ass in jail instead of becoming their assistant and helping them achieve their goals.

Hm. Maybe he'd rationalize it as letting him always be on the front lines, so if GUN tries to repeat what happened 50 years ago he can be there to stop it. That'd be sort of interesting, actually... Shadow taking missions from GUN not because he cares about the missions themselves, but so he can keep tabs on the organization.

Of course, I don't know if he'd count as an agent of GUN at all, even if '06 wasn't out of continuity. The only mission we ever saw him undertake was the rescue of one of his best friends, something that he might've done himself anyway. Maybe he only officially took the mission from GUN so he'd have access to their intelligence... wishful thinking, probably.

EDIT: Shadow also claims that his involvement in the mission is "a request from the president", suggesting that it might just be a personal favour, and Rouge is very surprised to see him there at all. I call that mission being a one-off.

Edited December 19, 2009 by Octarine

[Frozen Nitrogen]

EDIT: Shadow also claims that his involvement in the mission is "a request from the president", suggesting that it might just be a personal favour, and Rouge is very surprised to see him there at all. I call that mission being a one-off.

Mush as I would like to believe that, Shadow also does several Town Missions for GUN in '06 where they explicitly refer to him as an active GUN agent. *sigh*

While Shadow joining GUN as a means of "keeping an eye on them to make sure it doesn't happen again" would also be a possibility, I think that's pretty much incommensurate with his entire personality. Just as we've had recent R-R-R-RAGE in other threads of late that killing Robotnik, while logical, is just something Sonic wouldn't do, I'd say that Shadow joining GUN as a one-man oversight committee is just something he wouldn't do.

Shadow's more of a "Wrong me and I'll blast you to pieces" sort of guy than a "Hey lets not fight we should team up instead" collaborator, as his extremly reluctant and extremly temporary alliances with Sonic demonstrate.

And no-one's wronged him more than the Guardian Units of Nations.

Edited December 19, 2009 by Frozen Nitrogen

[Aquaslash]

Shadow's more of a "Wrong me and I'll blast you to pieces" sort of guy

I agree with this. He basically set out to bitch slap Rouge in Rivals 2 simply because she tripped him. Before that moment, he was telling her all his secrets

[redmenace]

I use to think same thing until I remembered the current G.U.N. Commander is a survivor of the ark tragedy. He claims that everyone he knew and loved died 50 years ago including Maria. If the GUN commander didn't climb the ranks and change GUN himself, you could at least consider that the GUN of today is not the same as GUN 50 years. If GUN is different and Shadow has put his past behind him then I see no problem with him working as a agent of GUN.

This is my main problem with the game. In SA2, you're invited to speculate that everyone was killed but Shadow and Gerald (who got executated anyway). Supposedly, GUN had no problem in shooting down children, why would they stop there and leave witnesses? They murdered a little child after all. You're also invited to think that Shadow and Maria were two kids that bonded because all the others were scientist and whatnot. Enter GUN commander and enter the notion that some survived. Suddenly, Maria was friends with him as well, but Shadow has no idea about him in SA2. There were more survivors, so Maria died for no reason besides a trigger happy bastard (and therefore GUN is not that corrupt anymore).

The GUN commander could've been a kid with a mother or a father (or both) at the ARK but was staying with another person at Earth and after they were murdered joined GUN and changed it from within. It's easier to believe than the tale they spun.

Edited December 20, 2009 by redmenace

[Frozen Nitrogen]

This is my main problem with the game. In SA2, you're invited to speculate that everyone was killed but Shadow and Gerald (who got executated anyway). Supposedly, GUN had no problem in shooting down children, why would they stop there and leave witnesses?

I direct you to The Truth About 50 Years Ago (again); Rouge's report from the SA2 strategy guide. It explicitly says:

Those who were among the top ranking of GUN, had a strong disliking of the research organization, and formulated a plan to shut down the ARK itself, taking advantage of its current situation. Their secret plan was code named, "ARK's Indestructible Seal"

All of the colony's residents were to be evacuated from a bio hazardous calamity generated from within the ARK research institution, and it would be sealed away. This was their ostensible purpose of the strategy. Of course, the true purpose was to close the ARK research facility, erase Project Shadow, and put the blame to Professor Gerald as the person who had caused the accident.

The plan was carried out, on the premise that GUN knew nothing, and within only seven days of the Plan's commencing, all the residents of the ARK were moved to the planet. All the research facilities aboard the ARK were frozen by GUN, and all persons involved in Project Shadow, except for Professor Gerald, were announced as victims of the disaster. The plan was finally completed, when the "Prototype of the Ultimate Lifeform" was found, and then sealed away in the deepest part of the Colony.

Note residents evac'd. Only the folks directly related with the project were to be gunned down.

[SuperStingray]

It actually reminds me of Half-Life- the military was sent to execute everyone involved in a top secret government project.

[Dr. Mechano]

Shadow's more of a "Wrong me and I'll blast you to pieces" sort of guy than a "Hey lets not fight we should team up instead" collaborator, as his extremly reluctant and extremly temporary alliances with Sonic demonstrate.

And no-one's wronged him more than the Guardian Units of Nations.

"Give them a chance to be happy" clause overrides whatever nasty feelings Shadow might have though.

Like it or not, Shadow was a villainous scourge who assisted in blowing up Prison Island and almost leading to the destruction of the entire planet, all quite intentionally. Sure, he reformed since then, but one can argue that GUN has cleaned up their act too.

For Shadow to still hold a grudge against GUN for their past misdeeds would be awfully hypocritical of the hedgehog who was instantly forgiven of his evildoing. I think it's good character development; Shadow was a bad guy until the very end of SA2, unapologetically so. But he changed for the better, and absolutely no one held anything he did against him.

For him to hold GUN's past atrocities against them- especially in light of the fact that GUN's current commander was totally innocent in regards to this, and seems to be a decent fellow unlike whoever controlled GUN fifty years ago- would be a huge double-standard, and I for one am actually happy to see one reformed bad guy forgive a reformed bad organization.

[redmenace]

I direct you to The Truth About 50 Years Ago (again); Rouge's report from the SA2 strategy guide. It explicitly says:

Note residents evac'd. Only the folks directly related with the project were to be gunned down.

Well that explains it, but it's still retarded. The people who were evacued would still make questions (like the rpesent GUN commander), therefore if they were disposed to kill the ones that were involved in the project why not implode the colony and get it done with? As so, there wouldn't be any trace of the experiments either.

And the whole GUN commander between Maria and Shadow when there was not a clue before is still not explained. It's not as if I pair them together (:puke:), but I thought they were like brothers in a place there weren't anyone else to hang out with or something. And then Shadow doesn't remember the commander. :\

[Frozen Nitrogen]

And the whole GUN commander between Maria and Shadow when there was not a clue before is still not explained. It's not as if I pair them together (:puke:), but I thought they were like brothers in a place there weren't anyone else to hang out with or something. And then Shadow doesn't remember the commander. :\

Most of the people on fanfiction.net (myself included) seem to think that Maria and the Commander were friends only in the Commander's opinion.

He certainly has the vibe of being that kid your mum makes you play with even though nobody likes him. :/

[Rusty Spy]

Well that explains it, but it's still retarded. The people who were evacued would still make questions (like the rpesent GUN commander), therefore if they were disposed to kill the ones that were involved in the project why not implode the colony and get it done with? As so, there wouldn't be any trace of the experiments either.

Note that this was a TOP secret mission. The government covered it up, and the excuse: "There had been an accident" would convince the other colonists that the ones who didn't survive were the victims of said accident. If they destroyed the ARK, everyone else would further question their motives.

And the whole GUN commander between Maria and Shadow when there was not a clue before is still not explained. It's not as if I pair them together (:puke:), but I thought they were like brothers in a place there weren't anyone else to hang out with or something. And then Shadow doesn't remember the commander. :\

It is strongly hinted at that Shadow had only been alive for probably a week before the ARK was shut down, and in the flashbacks of ShTH, it shows that the Commander and Maria had known each other longer than that. And the flashbacks of SA2 were all from Shadow's point of view so obviously there'd be no clue of Maria's friendship with the Commander, and since he[the Commander] showed a great dislike for Shadow when he first saw him, it's no surprise that he'd avoided Shadow the whole time.

[Thrippa]

Actually it's never said anywhere how long Shadow was alive/awake before the disaster (except in a single footnote in the 'Truth about 50 Years ago' which was added by the translator and not part of the actual text). His utter devotion to Maria suggests that he was around for a significantly longer period of time.

As to the topic, I think the dejected Shadow is my favorite ending, although I don't think any of them are actually correct. But you can tell in Last Story that he actually took more than the 6-level path the game restricts you to, as he recalls things that took place on different routes. The cutscenes themselves suggest it, as Sonic picks Shadow up outside of Eggman's base to take him to the ARK, although the two levels are concurrent on the route map. (For my take on the 'real story, look here.)

[Frozen Nitrogen]

Continuing on my note of Shadow's GUN forgiveness being a waste of good pathos, a thought occurs. Even if Shadow's forgiven them, this does not mean that other vilains necessarily have. You'd think after SA2 young Ivo might get it into his head that he wants to wreak specific vengeance against the organisation who forcibly pruned his own family tree.

Not that I think Eggman is really the kind of man to go for family loyalty, but wouldn't a renewed Eggman / Shadow revenge tag-team be pretty sweet? Gerald is the one man that Eggman's ever been said to admire...

My name is Inigo Montoya Ivo Robotnik. You killed my father grandfather. Prepare to die.

Edited December 23, 2009 by Frozen Nitrogen